gita, chapter two: find your way to equanimity

Exploring Chapter 2 of the Gita

This month, I decided I want to share some thoughts on parts of the chapter that I find inspiring in my everyday life. I hope that in them you, too, will find a treasure that can help lift you up above the day to day and see a bigger picture– and see your spirit’s place in it.

Find your way to equanimity

Let’s dive in this week by considering the following passage from the Gita:

Acting the same in

happiness and suffering,

gain and loss,

victory and defeat,

Then prepare for battle–

thus you shall not

suffer misfortune

-2:38

Wow. How in the heck do we do that?! What would we have to focus on in order to act the same in victory and defeat, happiness and suffering?

My only insight here is a thought I go back to over and over again. A core belief for me as a yogi is that everything that is happening to me is somehow leading me home. It is for our my own good. Therefore my job in every situation is to ask “how is this for my higher good?” If I am doing that, I am less focused on what is happening because I am looking for the why.

This is a much easier task when things are happy and successful. But I have found in my life that looking for the why during difficult times provides me with a strength I would not otherwise have. It keeps me from wallowing and pushes me forward through the darkness.